At one of the five (five!!) big celebrations we went to this week, someone asked Andy if he felt like the luckiest guy in the world to be married to someone who loved to cook. He was so sweet and enthusiastically agreed, but I couldn’t help but think about all the work he has to do to make opportunities for me to do these things. He entertains the kids while I spend so much more time than a normal person would choose to in the kitchen. He cleans up mountains of dishes so I can start everyday in a spotless kitchen. And he is relentlessly kind and patient to me and understanding of my penchant for signing on for too many things at once. Andy- I love you. And I’ve got lots of low-maintenance dinners on board for this week! But first, here’s a recap of our week of celebrations and holiday parties.

King Ranch Casserole. The boys ate cheetos for breakfast. I don’t even remember why we had them in the house. Then we went shopping because I had a Joann Fabric coupon (yesss), and it’s one of those places where the boys have become accustomed to getting a treat, so we sat on the sidewalk outside the store and they ate their skittles (Henry) and york peppermint patty (George), before moving on to the playground. Henry has been a solitary sort of fellow for most of his life. Even on playdates, he does more parallel-play than actually engaging with other kids. But lately he’s been enjoying the company of other kids, and playing with them too, and it lights me up to see it. At the playground he befriended a little girl and they played together for a bit, and afterwards he ran over to me and asked excitedly, “did you see my new friend?” The kids stayed at the playground forever. Way longer than I thought- I was hoping they’d play a bit and we’d be home in time for lunch. But it was almost one and everyone was hungry. I hate eating in South Park Meadows. If you’re not familiar, it is a colossally large strip mall sort of thing in South Austin. I think it may stretch over a mile and it’s awful. They bulldozed meadows of wildflowers and put in a target and a walmart and every other chain establishment you’ve ever heard of. I was so grossed out when they built it I vowed I wouldn’t shop there, but of course I do. It’s great to have a target and a joann fabrics and a playground all right next to each other. I am most decidedly a part of the problem. Anyway, back to lunch! There’s nothing I’m excited to eat in the whole of SPM. But right next to the playground there’s a Waterloo Ice House where the Henry and George can get a kids meal that comes with mac and cheese, and french fries (or fruit! as Henry surprised me by opting for) and a drink AND a cup of soft serve vanilla ice cream for $6. And the air smelled deliciously of griddled meat, so I said we could eat there. I broke my no-meat-at-chain-restaurants rule and ordered a burger because I couldn’t get the smell out of my head. It was delicious! Shockingly so. I got one with melted jack cheese, crispy bacon, and guacamole on top and I ate the whole thing in about 3 minutes. And you know what else- the kids were amazing. We sat and talked to each other while we waited for our food, and I didn’t have to chase anyone around the restaurant or keep them from pouring sugar on the floor or anything. It felt momentous. I think it might have been the first time I’ve enjoyed myself while eating out with my kids.

We ate this king ranch casserole for dinner, topping off a day full of bad food choices with a big dollop of sour cream. I made this and froze it when I was buried under a mountain of shredded chicken after thanksgiving, but it got soggy and mushy in the freezer and kind of sucked.

Food52/Friends-of-Abbie had our annual holiday potluck on Tuesday! Every year, for the past three years, we have come together to support the girls in the local Girl Scout Beyond Bars troop, which is headed up by my beautiful, hardworking sister-in-law, Joanna. The girls in this troop live all over Central Texas, range in ages from 5 years old to 18, but are all united by the common experience of having moms who are currently in or have just been released from prison. These beautiful kids each get a mentor, get to work with a counselor, get to do amazing experiences with their troop leader, Joanna, and best of all, get to spend one day a month visiting their moms in prison, in the same room, where they can hug each other and do fun and healing activities together too. This is the only program of its kind in Central Texas that allows kids to actually embrace their incarcerated mothers. This troop affords girls who would otherwise not have the means to visit their moms a beautiful, structured way to do that, as well as all the support to help them through one of the most devastating things that can happen to a kid. I am completely and thoroughly disgusted by the prison system that rips these families apart without any regard for the well-being of the kids involved. Not to mention the inhumane isolation of a mother from her children! I hate the whole thing. GSBB, and Joanna in particular, show these girls that there are people who care about them. When I came to the foodie lunch group I’m involved with (which meets for lunch monthly and is organized by the tremendously wonderful Abbie) and asked whether or not they would be willing to be involved with the supporting this troop during their holiday party, the women jumped in with both feet. I had initially just asked for food that we could contribute to their party, and every year the group has brainstormed more, bigger, and better ways to show our love to these kids. This year 17 of us sponsored 24 girl scouts and their siblings, 39 kids in all, with huge mountains of gifts, stuffed stockings, and an over-the-top array of treats for their holiday party. The girls’ wishlists, as is the case every year, were heartbreaking. Many asked simply for hygiene products, pads, sheets for their brothers’ bed, or a warm blanket. My sister Helen and my mom sponsored one brilliant little 11 year old whose sole request was a ventriloquist dummy. Helen found the perfect one, used her connections (or generous friend Christy!) to get her five outfits, and still had enough money to buy the girl scout some warm clothes and other necessities. For many of the girls, the gifts we provide are the only gifts they’ll receive for Christmas. I am grateful beyond measure for the generosity of the women who step up for these girls, and their siblings too. Alone, I could do very little, but with these women we can do something incredible. We can show these girls that they are loved.

Thank you to Abbie, for amassing a cadre of powerful, kind, and generous women, and inviting me to join you.

Thank you to Molly, for hosting us every year and for assuring me, year after year, that we won’t have trouble getting every girl covered.

Thank you to Andrea, Barbara, Beth, Carol, Christy, Danielle, Elizabeth, Gisselle, Helen, Janice, Kathy, Laura, Molly B., Nancy, and Sonja for generously sponsoring these girls and their siblings, providing stocking stuffers, beautiful desserts, and for showing your love for children who have had their hearts broken.

And thank you, thank you, to Joanna. You love and care for these girls year round, doing the work of a whole army of people. Thank you for the opportunity to show our support to you, the work you do, and the girls and families of troop 1500.

As many of the gifts as I could fit in the shot!

Before we stuff the stockings for the girls, we always have a potluck lunch. This is as good as potlucks get- these women can cook! Pictured above: a salad packed with apples and seasoned with za’atar and fresh thyme, this ridiculous gingerbread with a burned caramel sauce that I got to take home to share with my overjoyed family plus a delicious pecan pie, tomato caprese skewers, cheesy grits that I could not stop eating, lovely little heart cookies, another shot of the desserts, because, yes, some Argentinean beef empanadas, a delicious crushed lentil/tahini affair, and a pitch-perfect eggplant parmesan.

Beef Empanadas. After the potluck, which I got to attend child-free thanks to my gracious MIL, I raced home to take the kids to parkour. Henry continues to do beautifully, showing more kindness and patience than I ever thought he’d be capable of. Coach Kurt, that fine fellow, has been on vacation the last two weeks. He was back today and after class he said, “Henry, look at my eyes. You did a fantastic job today.” I love him. The kids shut the place down, as usual, so I had to hurry to get dinner ready quickly, before George fell asleep. I decided to fry the empanadas instead of baking them because it was so much faster and, egads! They were 100 times better than the baked version I brought to the potluck! Lots less healthy too, but who’s counting? Also fried plantains with sour cream is the food of the gods. I made a double batch of the empanada dough and filling, but kept them separate, and used about a third of it for the potluck to make 18 mini empanadas, a third for our dinner, to make 8 larger empanadas, and the other third for yet another holiday potluck on Thursday. I recommend it if you find yourself in a similarly potluck-heavy week!

Salted Brown Butter Crispy Treats. For the GSBB holiday party on Wednesday, I made these rice krispie treats. As if the original wasn’t delicious enough, this version from smitten kitchen more than doubles the butter, browns it to add a nutty depth, and throws in a pinch of crunchy sea salt. The result is so good. I added mini M&Ms to put ’em over the top.

The other women of Abbie’s lunch group donated massive amounts of lovely desserts: huge pies, a moist and tender lemon cake, a half pumpkin/half pecan pie that people kept coming back to, crispy treats and caramel corn, cookie brittle and brownie roll-out cookies, chocolate chip cookies, magical marvelous memorable cookies (my favorite!), and huge heaping bowlfuls of chex mix. It was a veritable smorgasboard! Several of the girl scouts made a beeline for this table before being ushered towards the dinner buffet first, and I can’t blame them one bit!

Really Good Spaghetti Bolognese. I am aware that this picture makes this dish look atrocious, so let’s not beat around the bush about it. Don’t let it stop you from making it though! It is everything. You cook carrots, onion, and celery down in a pile of cubed pancetta, along with finely minced mushrooms that disappear in the sauce but leave a robust meaty flavor, then you brown ground beef, add a little tomato, and let it cook for a good long while. And then, get this, you add almost a cup of heavy cream. Everyone loved it.

We spent the first half of the day shopping and doing random acts of kindness for a few people we love and a few strangers. It felt really good. And we got to play in a gorgeous park with a duck pond and a huge, cascading, several-story waterfall. And if that weren’t enough, Andy and I got to go out on a date to his holiday Toastmaster party. That’s a good day right there.

On Friday we spent the day celebrating my brother-in-law Jordan, who graduated with an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Texas State. We ate barbecue, hung out with his family on campus, watched him get hooded (this is a thing! I didn’t know), watched him walk the stage, and then celebrated some more with dinner and arcade games at Pinballz. I took no pictures, but I had to write here how proud we are of Jordan, and my sister Helen, too. In the past two years, they’ve gotten engaged, pregnant, had a baby, got married, finished school, embarked on a career as a professor (in addition to getting numerous awards and recognition for all of the plays he’s written in that time!)(Jordan), and become a successful entrepreneur (Helen). These two people are talented beyond measure, hard-working, and passionate. I am so proud and inspired by both of them, and all they have been able to accomplish together.  It is astounding. Congratulations to you both on this momentous accomplishment! We love you so.

And speaking of graduations, on Saturday we got to celebrate our dear friend Dustin’s! My BFF Molly reached out to Helen and I to help her pull off a celebration for him and we are all just so happy with the results. Molly suggested that we could do a very subtle Indiana Jones theme, because it’s one of his favorite set of movies, and also because his major of anthropology is tangentially related. Helen put together so many loving details- a centerpiece with a handpainted canvas and chalk art globe, amid Indian-inspired lanterns, golden chalices in homage to the grail scene in The Last Crusade, and tons of flowers that she artfully arranged in the colors of his alma mater. Please check out her facebook page for more and better photos of the work she did- it looked fantastic. For the food, I made a little appetizer from each of the main locales of the first three movies. Arancini (risotto balls) and roasted vegetable skewers from Italy, an exotic fruit and nut platter, pork and cabbage potstickers from China, Kofta (lamb meatballs) in a tahini sauce from Egypt, Peruvian chicken empanadas with an aji amarillo sauce from Peru, miniature vegetable samosas with an apple and cilantro chutney from India, and linguiça and potato skewers from Portugal. I was happy with how everything came out, though I don’t recommend cooking potstickers in not-your-own kitchen in front of a lot of people you don’t know! It was really fun too, because several of the people there had never had any of these dishes. How fun to introduce people to the joys of samosas and potstickers! The risotto balls were the biggest hit- they went fast. Dustin’s sweet sister asked me what the “cheesy things” were, and gestured toward them, and I got to share with her that it was just rice and butternut squash cooked slowly in chicken stock and then deep fried!

I also made 45 chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, though only 41 made it to Molly’s house (George:3, Henry:1…ok, George did take three, but didn’t finish any of them. Whenever I encountered a partially-eaten cupcake around the house, I was more than happy to dispatch it). I am so lucky to have such wonderful friends in Molly and Dustin, who are always so generous and kind to me and my family. I loved having the opportunity to be a part of Dustin’s big celebration. We love you both!

Venison and Black Bean Chili. And you guys, we did it! This long week is over. It’s been fun, but I am thoroughly exhausted. We spent the day doing comparatively little. George and I shopped while Andy and Henry stayed home and played a kids version of D&D, we played in the yard and made gingerbread cookies. We lit the last candle on the menorah and ate a quiet and happy dinner together. And my avocado was perfect too, which always makes me giddy. And I get to write my blog post on time and I don’t even have to stay up until 2:30 to do it! Life is sweet.

This morning the boys and I went grocery shopping at Central Market. They always insist on getting one of those ridiculously long carts with the two kid seats attached. These carts can only barely be maneuvered through the aisles, and if you pull up too close to the side of something it can take a good dozen back-and-forth micro-adjustments to get the thing away from the wall so you can push it freely again. I just hate it. Also, George can never just sit in the seat. He stands and rides. He sits on the floor of the kid-seat part and drags his feet on the ground. He gets off and walks absentmindedly beside me. Today he found a new way to ride- he crawled under the basket and sat on the bars that are just a few inches off the floor. I saw his feet dragging on the ground and wondered briefly if I should make him move. At that moment another shopper, a childless one, I’ll note, cocked her head in our direction and said “You know, it looks like they’re having fun,” (Henry had joined George under the basket) “but I’m worried they could get hurt doing that.” I hate it, hate it when strangers chime in with an opinion on my parenting. Obviously, lady, I know this isn’t the safest option! But they’re happy down there and I’m just trying to get through a trip to the grocery store with two kids. I don’t need someone to point out to me what my kids should or should not be doing. You can guess how this story ends, right? Half an aisle later we stopped for eggs and cream. Before I pushed the cart again I said, “I’m going to push the cart again, watch your fingers.” I pushed and immediately felt resistance, and George burst into tears. He’d pinched his little finger in the wheel :(((( So, I’m the worst. I sat in that little kid seat and held him while he cried. I’d imagine that lady saw the whole thing and felt completely vindicated. But she had the grace to not say ‘I told you so’ to my face. Oh, me. George is ok, thankfully! I guess I won’t let him ride under the cart anymore. Does reading this story make you hate me?

I’ve been working on a catering project for a big party next week, so most of my discretionary cooking time went to making and freezing stuff for the party. I’ll get to share that stuff with you in my next post! I’m noting it here, though, because our regular meals were put on the back burner, so to speak. I never made a meal plan nor shopped for specific meals, so every day at dinner it was a race to see what I could throw together out of the stuff we had on hand. It turns out that this technique doesn’t lend itself to food-blogging. I’ve got a sandwich, a pan of beans, and a really unfortunate-looking fried rice to share with you. But I’m here all the same! Let’s see if we can’t make these things interesting.

Potato Scallion Cakes, Rainbow Chard Agrodolce. By Monday, we had eaten or frozen all of our Thanksgiving leftovers with the exception of three cups of mashed potato. So I decided to try out a double-batch of these potato scallion cakes on food52 that were developed as a way to use up mashed potatoes (after the gravy is gone I have no desire for them). If you have ever made latkes from the Manischewitz box mix then you know exactly what these taste like. They’re great! Soft and subtly oniony. I bought a few random green things at the farmers’ market thinking I’d use them as the inspiration for my weekly menu plan. I never did that, so mostly they languished (or are currently languishing) in the fridge. But I did use up a bunch of chard in an agrodolce inspired by the linked recipe. I love the honey and vinegar- it made the chard feel almost like a condiment for the potato cakes- the sharp/sweet taste went well with them.

Tortilla Mash-up, Beans. I stayed up late Monday night finishing up George’s advent calendar. When I had only one child, I made the foolish decision to make an advent calendar by sewing 24 miniature stockings, numbering them, and stringing them on the wall with baker’s twine. Now that George is two and fully aware of when things are fair or not, I had to make a matching set for him. But I did get it finished, and got all 48 tiny stockings stuffed with a variety of seven types of novelty gummies. My kids really love gummies. Henry knew what would be waiting for him in the morning and slept terribly and woke up early to bask in the glow of a month’s worth of gummies. He was so happy! George loved his too. And watching Henry lead George to his little stocking each morning has been endlessly delightful. These brothers have been acting more and more like friends lately and it makes my heart feel like it’s going to explode. What a joy to watch them play together! We spent a happy day outside and at parkour, and then it came time for dinner and I had no plan and no real ingredients. So I made tortillas- a combo of the two recipes I’ve talked about here- this fluffy and pliable Homesick Texan one and the other more authentic bare bones one from Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, with just flour, oil, salt, and water. I think I liked it the best yet! Andy agreed. It went a little something like this: 3 cups flour, 1.5 teaspoons baking powder, 2 heaping teaspoons kosher salt mixed, then blended with 1.5 tablespoons of oil, then mixed with 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole milk. Kneaded briefly, rolled into 15ish golf ball sized knobs, rested 30 minutes under a towel, rolled thin and griddled. Tortillas! Still soft and pliable, a little less fluffy, and with more chew. We got this, y’all.

Potstickers, Vietnamese Glazed Butternut Squash, Roasted Cauliflower. We’re skipping Wednesday here, because we ate pizza from Conan’s for dinner. My fabulous mother-in-law took my kids for the whole day and I was able to spend the day doing a bunch of the stuff on my to-do list, including spending around 5 hours cooking stuff for that big party that’s happening next week. I didn’t pick the kids up until six, and we were all super hungry and I, once again, had no plan for dinner, so Andy got us a pizza.

I did a little better on Thursday, though, you see, I spent no time plating things attractively. The boys and I stayed home all day reading books, painting pictures, and building a fire in the backyard with twigs and dead plants from around the yard. It felt so nice and warm and we sat so close to it for so long that we all smelled of campfire when we finally came inside. That orange cauliflower was one of the farmers’ market things I didn’t have a plan for, so I just roasted it with coconut oil and garlic and then seasoned it with soy sauce. It was whatever. I love this soft pan-steamed and fried squash though, seasoned with a little sugar and fish sauce. I thought the rice and potstickers would be a hit with the kids, but they ate both things modestly, leaving me with a ton of rice.

Fried Rice. We went to a new-to-us park, and the kids loved it so much we spent a full six hours there. It’s a beautiful spot, in spite of being nestled right next to an 80 mph toll road. Onion Creek passes through it, and it has some of the biggest pecan trees I’ve ever seen, along with a lake where you can fish if you like, an innovative playground, and an archaeological dig! We left at four and the kids both fell asleep on the way home and slept until 6:30, which would normally have been devastating to me (because it meant they would be up until midnight), but we’ve had a good week and it didn’t feel like such a big deal. I made the choice to stay at that park all day, and I knew it would mean that they’d be up late, and I didn’t mind, which is progress, I think. We took the opportunity to have our first family movie night since we’ve abandoned screen time and watched The Princess Bride. Henry talked through the whole thing, but I think he liked it. George liked the shrieking eels and then lost interest until the ROUS scene. That is such a fun movie.

We needed another quick dinner after the kids finally woke up (George was asleep on me and Henry was asleep on Andy, so we were stuck until they woke up). I had leftover rice, a fennel bulb from the farmers market, a few eggs, a few slices of inferior Applegate farms ham (Henry only has eyes for DaBecca honey maple ham, and I’d have to agree with him that it’s light-years better than the Applegate stuff), and raw brussels sprouts. I crisped up some ginger and garlic a la this recipe, sauteed half an onion and the fennel bulb, and then stirred everything else into the pan. It was a lot of weird shit altogether, but it tasted ok! I think the radiant pink ham flecks in the picture make it look like a nightmare, though.

Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing. I also made these banana cupcakes to take with us to Budafest the next day. I’ve been needing to use up bananas all week, but I’m feeling tired of banana muffins and didn’t know what else to do with them. Then I remembered the cream cheese frosting in the fridge leftover from the oatmeal cream pies last week and decided to make banana cupcakes. If you’re picturing a muffin-y thing with frosting on top, you’ve got it all wrong. Banana cake is amazing! It’s got a quarter the amount of banana you’d use for muffins and easily double the fat and sugar. They’re soft and fluffy and gentle little banana pillows. They are my new love.

Budafest! It’s the Christmas festival in the town where I grew up and we still go every year. We always start with breakfast tacos at Casa Alde. Helen got there first and held down a big table for us while bands of people challenged her right to hold the seats, so we texted her our order so it’d be ready when we got there. Andy wanted two tacos, but I thought that was inadvisable because the other big draw for Budafest is a food court where churches and boy scout troops and groups like that sell Texas-y foods like Frito pies and sausage wraps and beef fajitas, and that’s so great too, and if you eat two tacos you might not be hungry enough for all these other things! So he got one and so did I and then I was still so hungry that I ate Helen’s extra taco and Andy gave me the stink eye, so I shared it with him. George rode a pony and walked around with us while Andy and Henry spent two hours riding all the carnival rides. Henry got a wristband for unlimited rides for $20 and Andy figures he got about $54 worth of rides out of it. By the time we were ready to leave (we were doing a big Christmas-y double header and driving straight from Budafest to Elgin to cut down a Christmas tree) I, tragically, wasn’t hungry for the beloved food court fare. You see, I was right about the two tacos! I got Andy a beef fajita, and a sausage wrap for each of the kids. We drove to Elgin and the kids fell asleep and I ate the lower third of Henry’s sausage wrap (I’d have eaten George’s but he unwrapped the thing and put the fat sausage in his filthy cupholder and dropped the tortilla on the floor). It tasted like liquid smoke and had the texture of a pasty hot dog but I liked it just fine. And that brings us to the Christmas tree farm!

A family picture! With a bow saw, no less! Thank you, Helen!! My eyes might be closed- let’s see if we can do better!

Hmm. Naw. Let’s just try for a goofy one!

I am the clear champion. A goal for the new year: make goofy faces in front of the mirror until I can develop one that doesn’t make me look like a snake preparing to swallow a large egg. Maybe incorporate a middle finger to the camera as Henry subtly demonstrates.

We do better with the candid shots, I dare say! Look at my loves!

Oh, this kid! He’s judging us all, we can be sure of that.

This guy hasn’t learned to judge us yet! Isn’t he a peach?

Sandwich. On the drive home from the Christmas tree farm we talked about what we would do for dinner.  I asked what everyone would eat if they could have any dinner in the world, and I think I was the only one who came up with something. Or maybe I just wasn’t listening. I wanted a beautiful sandwich. On really good sliced bread. Maybe a thick turkey, avocado, bacon affair. But I don’t know anywhere around us that sells something like that, and besides we had already eaten out once this week and then dropped a ton of cash at Budafest, so we decided to eat at home. We were scraping the bottom of the barrel in the fridge and pantry. The kids opted for buttered noodles with parmesan. There was just enough (stale) bread for Andy and I to have sandwiches. The salami on it had a slight funk- like it had been sitting in the sun for a bit. But we ate it anyway and didn’t get sick, so there’s a feather in our caps. The only chip-like thing in the house was really stale pirates booty, which I don’t care for much even when it’s fresh, but given the choice between a sandwich and no chips and a sandwich and bad chips, I’ll take the bad ones every time.

Matzo Ball Soup, Latkes. And that brings us to today! The first night of Hanukkah! We celebrated by driving down to Wimberley to see a children’s theatre production of A Christmas Carol. It was only about half an hour and both kids loved it. Henry laughed like a madman at almost every line. Yeah, even the not funny ones. We got to meet the cast afterwards and several of them complimented him on his laugh- it was delightful. We walked around the grounds of the Emily Ann Theatre after the show- they have a fun trail of lights there every year with a ton of Christmas-y vignettes to look at. In an effort to keep George awake on the long drive home we stopped at a gas station and the kids both got to pick out a treat. Henry picked Cheetos and George picked an enormous cream-filled Oreo brownie bar. It turned out to be terrible, but Henry graciously shared his chips with George and the kid stayed awake! It’s a Hanukkah miracle! I made a quick dinner of matzo ball soup and latkes. I bought stuff for salad but forgot to make it- ah well. I lit the shamash and the candle for the first night and sang the Baruch Atah Adonai blessing thing very badly. But oh, I love it. I wish we sang and lit a candle before more things.

Sufganiyot. And we had jelly donuts for dessert too! Henry was displeased with the meager amount of raspberry jam I’d filled them with, and with the announcement that the gas station Cheetos were his Hanukkah present, but it was a lovely evening all the same. After donuts we went to bed and Henry and I finished a chapter book he had selected because it has the words “Poop Fountain” in the title, and both kids were asleep by nine. Pretty sweet, y’all.

We’ve got a beast of a week ahead of us. It’s that week where every group you are tangentially related to is having a holiday gathering and you have to make food for all of them. Plus, we’ve got the graduations of two of our favorite people to celebrate and a big party to throw! Plus gummies to eat and candles to light. These are all great things, you guys. I can’t wait to share them with you. Happy Hanukkah! Happy Week!

Well, we’ve made it through gratitude week and I’m ready to use this space to complain about my kids again. I’m only sort of joking. It’s been a great week, a long week, full of family togetherness and good food. One kid or the other or both have also napped almost every day this week, which means we’ve been up with them until 11 or so with no time for Andy and I to be alone or do the stuff we want to do without a kid on our laps. Today, George didn’t nap and I was so glad I’d be able to write my blog post on time. But then he fell asleep at 5:30 and woke up at 7 and would not go back to sleep. He was delightful the whole evening- playing games with us and making pictures with glitter and glue- but he didn’t fall asleep again until 12:30. Then I snuck out and wrote a paragraph about deviled eggs, and then Henry woke up. I held his hand for 45 minutes and he was just not falling back asleep. I love these kids so much but I was so frustrated I felt like throwing a brick through a window. Or bursting into tears. So I asked Andy to come lie with Henry and that brings us to here. It’s 1:23 in the morning and I’m writing my blog post in a dark house because I want to, dammit, and tomorrow night will probably bring more of the same so I may as well do it now. I know there are other ways to do this- throw the kids in a dark room and tell them they can’t come out until the sun rises or something. I don’t want to do it differently. I want to do it the way we do it and I want the kids to just go to sleep at night. And if they don’t I want the right to complain about it. If this were still the one week a year where we’re grateful for stuff, I’d say I’m grateful to have healthy kids who want to hold my hand and lie next to me. For a warm house, and food, and family, and all those things that I take for granted. But Thanksgiving’s over and I’m tired and surly so instead I’ll just wish for what I don’t have! Here’s what we ate this week.

Apple Crunch Pie. I’m putting this pie at the top of the post, out of order from when we actually ate it (our at-home Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday) because it looks a far-cry better than the milquetoast mushroom soup we actually ate first, and I didn’t want the sad soup to be the cover shot of this week of feasting and gluttony. Pie is a far better representation. I love this pie. My mom found the recipe 20 years ago and it’s been my favorite ever since- the standard I compare all other apple pies to. The topping really does stay remarkably crisp and crunchy, even after refrigeration. The apples are sliced thinly and dressed simply, and the whole thing is piled into an all-butter crust. What more could you ask for? (Besides kids that go the fuck to sleep! Wink wink.)

Balthazar Creamy Mushroom Soup. When I scrolled through my photos of food from the past week, I saw this and thought, why is this soup so brown? What is this? Before remembering it was mushroom soup and supposed to be that color. In spite of the murkiness of the photo, this is a deep, rich, earthy soup that I think is just the thing for fall. When you put your head over the pot when you’re browning the mushrooms it smells like meat and dirt and I mean that in the very best way. It’s from a fancy-ish GOOP-looking website. I didn’t read the headnote and don’t know who or what Balthazar is. Perhaps it’s a restaurant-to-the-stars somewhere? In my mind, Balthazar means a large bottle of wine or one of the three wise men or possibly both or possibly neither. It’s late and I’ve got no time for fact checking. We ate this with more of that challah bread that I keep making, with one of the two loaves cubed and dried and used for our Thanksgiving stuffing.

Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce, Venison Meatballs. This was Tuesday, parkour day. If you recall, a very rough parkour session two weeks ago is what inspired us to turn off the screens to see if it would help improve all of our moods. This week, one of the instructors took me aside to tell me that Henry has been amazing- patient and kind with everyone. She couldn’t believe his transformation. It was so nice to hear, I could have cried. We came home and celebrated with everyone’s favorite dinner.

Dry-Brined Roasted Giant Chicken. I’ve tried several of the heritage turkeys on offer through farmers’ market vendors over the past several years, and haven’t been very happy with any of them.  They cost a fortune and they’re too tough and stringy. Then Dewberry Hills Farm started selling mammoth 12ish pound chickens for holidays, so we tried it and never looked back. They’re fantastically moist, tender, succulent. All the words. I cooked it just like a turkey, following all the steps in this recipe, except not flipping the bird over and over again during cooking, because I don’t like the rack lines it leaves in the breast when you cook it upside-down.

Our Thanksgiving Spread. I am a complete traditionalist when it comes to Thanksgiving. Our tradition, as you can see, is full of meats and starches, and only the slightest acknowledgement of vegetables, in the form of a small bowl of green peas, so far on the periphery that it didn’t make the picture. I burned the dinner rolls and used canned cranberry sauce but other than that this meal was aces. It was also the second Thanksgiving dinner I cooked that day.

A few years ago my sister-in-law Joanna, who is a do-gooder of the highest order, hooked us up with a Thanksgiving volunteer opportunity to provide ready-to-eat traditional T-Day fare to food-insecure families in East Austin. I did it again last year, and then thought I would skip this year because of lack of money and time. But then on Monday a neighbor stopped by and said she’d received a turkey through her husband’s work and they didn’t want it, and could I use it? I took it as a sign. I made the turkey, a huge vat of stuffing, and 5 pounds of mashed potatoes and the boys and I delivered it. I’m sharing this story for two reasons: 1) to persuade you that I’m not as entirely self-absorbed as this blog’s opening paragraph might lead you to believe and 2) so you’ll know that I’m a badass who cooked two thanksgiving dinners in one day.

My First Helping. I like this stuffing, made without sausage, because it’s as close to a real-food version of my beloved Stove Top stuffing as I’ve ever found. The potatoes are the standard variety. The gravy is that amazing stuff that you can only make when you’ve roasted a huge bird and have two cups of drippings and loads of sweet, sweet bird fat. The sweet potatoes are roasted, mashed with butter, and topped with cubes of crispy pepper bacon. The rolls are, don’t judge me, more of that challah, this time shaped into small rounds and baked in a 9×13 pan. They would have been great if I hadn’t wanted just a bit more color on them. I put them under the broiler and forgot about them until I smelled them burning. This is a mistake I keep repeating- using the broiler to add just a bit more color to something when I’m multitasking in the kitchen. It never works out.

Virginia Willis’ Deviled Eggs. I am hoping that it will come as a surprise to you that I have an ego about the food I cook. Or is it obvious because I have a food blog and document all the things I make and that sort of thing wouldn’t take place if you didn’t have some level of hubris about the food you’re making? Either way, these deviled eggs brought out my big hulking ego. We spent actual-Thanksgiving with Andy’s extended family in San Antonio. I don’t think any of them read this blog, but before I tell this story, let me preface by saying they are all lovely, warm, and welcoming people. Who don’t bake their own desserts. Every get-together is a potluck, and the food is always delicious, and the desserts are always from Costco. For Thanksgiving, that means massive sturdy 15-inch pies that come out of some sort of pie-making machine. So when I got my potluck assignment of deviled eggs, I was decidedly put out. Deviled Eggs?? They want me, the brilliant pie-maker, who uses grass-fed butter in her homemade crust, organic ingredients, the best recipes, to bring deviled eggs? I’m truly that awful. I shut up and brought the deviled eggs, and they were enjoyed. Also there was only one giant Costco pie this year, but also a suite of pies from a bakery where one of the family members works, and they were delicious, along with a delightful homemade white chocolate bread pudding made by the hosts. So I’m officially the worst.

Leftovers. All three of these things are just vehicles for that gravy. Yes, we put gravy on our leftover turkey/chicken sandwiches. I recommend it.

Bouchon’s Quiche Lorraine, Gluten-Free. After two days of Thanksgiving foods we met at Andy’s parents house for a light brunch of bacon quiche, kolaches, and donuts. It’s been a week, y’all! This is a true celebration quiche- it takes three days to make. It’s got a pound of bacon lardons, 2 pounds of onion confit, comte cheese, and a custard that you scald and then aerate in a blender. These things together are pure magic.

Oatmeal Cream Pies, Gluten Free. Oh yeah, we also ate a platter of oatmeal cream pies with the donuts, kolaches, and quiche. And there was bacon. We win the gluttony award. Also probably the heart disease award.

Butternut Risotto with Parmesan, Rosemary, and Lemon. Flush with chicken stock from our giant bird, Henry pleaded for risotto. I made it for him, but Andy and I are so tired of it we both ate more thanksgiving leftovers instead.

Suppli with Tomato Sauce. The very best thing about risotto is making these breaded and fried risotto balls with the leftovers. I mix an egg or two and more cheese in for binding, then do the classic flour/egg/breadcrumb dredge and deep fry the suckers. They are miles more delicious than the original risotto, and completely over-the-top perfect when dipped in leftover tomato sauce.

A Food52 Potluck: Rice Salad with Nuts and Sour Cherries, Brussels Sprouts Salad a la M. Wells, Beet Tartare with Burrata and Crackers, Pumpkin Cake with Chocolate Ganache, and Heavenly Oatmeal-Molasses Rolls. Sadly not pictured: adorable chocolate brownie heart cookies, and salted caramel ice cream made by drbabs. Savorthis, a brilliant home chef from Denver and fellow food52er was in Austin for the holiday, so some of the local food52 crew got together for a potluck. Lucky me that these beautiful chefs brought some vegetables into my life! Food52 potlucks are the cream of the crop and this one was no exception- everything was fantastic. Dr. Babs, the public demands a recipe for that pumpkin cake! Please and thank you.

Tamales! Red Chile Chicken, Lentil Falafel, Beet Tartare. I’m not shitting you. These are the tamale flavors we made. As my contribution to the potluck, I made a red chile chicken filling and tamale batter to use up the rest of our chicken leftovers. The women graciously helped me spread, fill, fold, and wrap each tamale, but then they weren’t done steaming by the time the party was over and so they’re all for me. So my contribution was less a contribution and more an appeal for free labor. I also got to keep all of the leftovers from the above picture, so I’m officially the greediest potluck host of all time. We had extra batter and so we stuffed some weird shit into tamales. Some of the beet and burrata tartare pictured above, and also some leftover lentil falafel mixture. I gotta say, they both made surprisingly delicious tamales! The beets were sweet and the flavors went well with the porky corn flavors of the masa batter. The falafel was flavored with cumin and garlic and tasted great and right at home in the tamales too. A thousand thanks to the beautiful and generous women who joined me today!

I’ve officially stayed up way too late, but I wrote a thing! It’s full of complaints and bitterness, I know, but I’m happy I got to write it. I’m also happy I get to slip into bed next to a still-sleeping George and wake up in the morning to spend the day with my Henry. And who knows, maybe Andy and I will get to spend an evening together one of these days! I’m lucky to have all of it. I know it, honestly I do.